Brighton Asylum I Published November 11

By: Cam’Ron Johnson

In October we look forward to many events, from leaves changing colors, to apple picking, and pumpkin patches with friends, to the middle of football season and wearing cozy sweaters and sweatpants.  There are more festivities that went unlisted, but they rank second when compared with Halloween. Halloween is the staple of October, bringing to us costume-wearing, late-night parties, trick-or-treating, and pumpkin carving. Halloween marks a fun time in the year but it’s also the scariest.

This year I decided to take a trip to Brighton Asylum, a haunted house in Passaic, NJ. The haunted house has a rating of 4.5 stars and is ranked number one in NJ. When you arrive it will be late in the hours of operation. The parking lot is located behind a warehouse, so from the moment I parked I felt the spooky energy. Despite it being a busy night the entrance line moved quickly and the staff remained kind and peaceful.

Once inside the event, I was intrigued by my surroundings as I headed toward the haunted house station.  The mist set the scene greatly. It was all around, you could almost taste it. The music was eerie with an upbeat tone that kept me in the flow as I  waited. There were boutique stores, places to print pictures, and spots to pose with Halloween items and take some creative pictures yourself. While in line, the colorful lights were distracting but the presence of the scare actors quickly grabbed my attention. The uniqueness of their costumes and voice acting made me feel as if I were in the haunted house already. As I approached the entrance of the haunted house, rules and regulations were stated “ Keep all phones in pockets…actors are not allowed to touch you… please enter into the right,” said a staff member. I assumed it wouldn’t be scary since physical contact was prohibited but I was wrong.

I was at the front of the line, once inside the haunted house all noise from the outside quickly vanished. It really felt as if I was in a horror movie and I was awaiting my oncoming scare. Hearing the screams of previous groups, it’s as if they were silenced right after a loud outburst.  Knowing myself I normally try to keep a very calm face, but in this situation, I was worried and looking over my shoulder at every turn and corner. I even began sweating a bit.

The haunted house had many themes. First were movement stages, and it was as if I were trapped in a rocking ship, a burning church where I felt the heat and even an insect home. Spiders hung from the wall while sounds of bugs crawling, and bright green and black eggs attached to the walls shook as if they were hatching. My entomophobia didn’t want me to be near the insect habitat but the eggs were the lights used to walk through to exit the insect house. The scare actors were even better than the themes themselves. There were so many interactive doors and windows. The scare actors would pop up from each and every corner, I almost felt my ghost leave my body. In one room the staff member asked  “Are you here by yourself? ”

“Yes,” I said.

Seconds later a scary actor appeared and asked “Oh, you came by yourself?” The voice was chilling. She backpedaled back into the room waiting for me to enter. To fill the night air with screams the scare actors used chainsaws and hammers to bang on the walls For those that showed fear early on there was no doubt they would return to scare again.  The night was a thrill ride of laughter and screams from myself and other attendees confirming that Brighton Asylum is the place to be for Halloween.

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